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Wednesday, 11 June 2014

We Should Learn a Second Foreign Language by Daigo.S

Do you study a second
foreign language at the University of Tsukuba? At the University of Tsukuba,
students in certain colleges don’t have to learn a second foreign language. It
is a rare case that students don’t have to learn a second foreign language at a
university. It is sad for me that some students don’t learn a second foreign
language. I think we should learn a second foreign language at a university. I
have two reasons for this. First, a second foreign language gives us new
windows to the world or to the language we learned previously. Second, sometimes
we must read an essay or a paper which is written in a language that is not
Japanese or English.

First, learning a second foreign
language gives us a new idea of the language we learned previously. Learning a
new language is learning a new culture related to that language. Knowing foreign culture is important for us,
because we live in a global world. You must understand a foreign culture if you
talk or mix with foreign people. A language is the key to understanding a culture,
because a language is the mirror to a culture.

Second, at a university sometimes we
must read an essay which is written in a language that is not Japanese or
English. Needless to say, if you major in a foreign language at a university,
you must be able to read, write, and listen to that language. We should also
learn a second foreign language if you don’t major in a foreign language. In the
academic world, we need to check information that is up to date. So we don’t
have time to wait for an essay to be translated which is written in a language
we don’t know into the language we know. If you want up to date information,
you should learn some academically important language like German or Russian.
We should read an essay in the original language, because there could be some
misunderstanding in a translation.

In conclusion, learning a second foreign
language is the key to understanding a foreign culture and also this could be a
key to the academic world. So we should learn a second foreign language at a university.
Of course we know that we need a lot of labor to acquire a foreign language,
but the benefit of learning a second foreign language counterbalances that
labor. Some students don’t like to study a foreign language because of English,
but learning a second foreign language could be a medicine for their hate for a
foreign language.

Reference

Koremura,N. (1997). Second Foreign Languages in the Schools of Science-Technology.

Proceedings of the School of Information and
Telecommunication Engineering Tokai University.